CSU spinoff buys anti-cancer drug for animals

Fort Collins-based VetDC hopes to develop a new treatment to thwart cancer growth in animals.

Aug. 19, 2013

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Nicole Ehrhart, professor of surgical oncology at Colorado State University, works in the lab at the university's Animal Cancer Center. CSU's veterinary hospital is closely tied to VetDC, a spinoff that is trying to develop and market a canine cancer drug. / William A. Cotton/CSU Photography

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Fort Collins-based VetDC has acquired an anti-cancer drug it hopes to develop into a new treatment for one of the leading killers of pets.

The drug, purchased from San Francisco pharmaceutical company Pathway Therapeutics, blocks cancer cells from multiplying and growing in an animal’s body, VetDC President and CEO Steven Roy said in an interview.

The proteins, renamed VDC-597 when acquired from Pathway, have been evaluated in animal studies and initial human clinical trials and could be a new treatment option for animals suffering from certain cancers. VetDC, a spinoff of Colorado State University, is working with the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s Animal Cancer Center to study how the drug performs in dogs with cancer.

Ultimately, VetDC hopes to bring the drug to market to give veterinarians another option in treating dogs with the disease, which currently has no cure, Roy said. As veterinary care improves, dogs are living longer and more are getting cancer, similar to the growth of cancers in humans. But unlike human medicine, which can now manage cancer as a chronic disease, veterinary medicine doesn’t have the same number of options, Roy said. “It’s a scary disease for anyone affected by it or family members affected by it and pets are our family members.”

Giving veterinarians more options will allow them to prolong the life of pets by sequencing these drugs over time, he said.

VetDC, formed in 2011, is leveraging research Pathway Therapeutics has already conducted that showed the drug was well-tolerated in animals and humans, saving the company millions of dollars of research costs as it works to bring the drug to market. Roy said studies could begin by early next year, and the drug could be in the marketplace within about three years.

The information uncovered will eventually be valuable for companies developing cancer drugs for humans and for potential partnerships down the road, Roy said. “That’s why we’re really excited. There are a lot of angles here.”

Getting through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s veterinary regulatory process is shorter and more straight forward than bringing a human drug forward, and much of the work has already been done, Roy said.

As development of the drug progresses, VetDC intends to expand its study pipeline to include many other animal cancers.

VetDC, currently housed at the Rocky Mountain Innosphere on Vine Drive, has five employees but leverages its relationship with CSU to conduct research.